northern lights

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Some days back we had gone for a Puja to a friend's house.After the the Puja I just overheard two ladies talking. One of them was the hostess. The other lady asked her why had she organised the Puja on a week day. She said that if the Puja had been held on the week end it would have attracted more guests.The lady of the house,without even a blink in her eyes said the day is not auspicious. Moreover, the Puja had been kept to ward away the the effect of Shani from her son's horoscope. This conversation set me thinking. It was only the result of superstitions,which are deeply ingrained in our mind.

What is Superstition? What is the basis of superstitions? They are beliefs, notions and happenings which cannot be explained scientifically or no reasoning can be given. Such beliefs are generally baseless and irrational,which cannot be reasoned. It has been observed that these are mainly related to good/bad luck. In some cases it is connected with religion. For example, there is a belief that we should keep a door open on Diwali so that Goddess Lakshmi can enter the house otherwise the Goddess will not visit the house.This religious faith has no basis,but people believe it. A black cat is considered unlucky .If a black cat crosses your way , it is a bad omen and the work for which you are going will not be accomplished. Friday,the 13th is considered ominous because it is a belief that Jesus was crucified on Friday ,the 13th . So much so that people avoid the number 13 for their house. In some high rise buildings there is no 13th floor. After the 12th floor comes the 14th floor.

There are innumerable superstitions which neither have any base nor any explanation. We may call ourselves advanced but in our heart of hearts we cling to some superstition. I know one gentleman who signs important documents ,sitting in the same chair, using the same pen and facing the same direction. Can you beat it? Maximum number of superstitions are connected with examinations,going for interviews,marriage and child birth. When the children are going to write an exam, it is auspicious if they eat curd. When a lady is pregnant, she is prohibited from seeing solar or lunar eclipse.It is a belief that if she does so, the child will be deformed. Another superstition is that if a woman , during pregnancy ,eats sweets the child will be a boy and if she likes spicy food , a girl child will be born.

The days of a week are all similar, but some days are considered to be inauspicious. On Tuesdays people do not have haircut. Even some barber shops are closed. On Thursdays we don't wash clothes,don't have hair bath and don't shave. There is no reason. Can anyone explain. There is also a belief that some time of every day is inauspicious,which is termed Rahu Kalam. During this period no important work can be undertaken and we are not supposed to leave the house if we have to go for a journey. Many superstitions are related to the theory of reincarnation, spirits,luck, good or bad events etc. In fact any subject for which no rationale can be given becomes a superstition.

I have compiled some superstitious beliefs. Can anybody throw some light on the origin of superstitions and the intensity of their hold on the people.

1.A cat, especially a black cat, crossing the road.

2. Not walking under a ladder.

3.Twitching of the eyes.

4. Breaking of a mirror.

5.If a crow is on the wall

6. Spilling of salt.

7.A broom placed upright.

8.Many superstitions about falling of lizards.

9.The ringing of bells in a place of worship.

10. Itching of the hands/feet.

I have mentioned only a few but there are several more superstitions . In fact every important event from birth to death is associated with beliefs which neither have any scientific base nor religious background. They have been followed by our ancestors and are observed down the line. Without giving explanations these go on from generation to generation. I have also got several obsessions and compulsions. In fact I have posted this at an auspicious hour!!

Image of the cat: courtesy Google

Monday, 25 February 2013

BIRTH OF MENON-E-AZAM -20 OCTOBER 1960

This post is from my husband's archives.It was written by him in the year 1960,when our son, who is now a CA was born. This is written in a humorous vein.

(This is another guest post by my husband.)

While
rummaging through a labyrinth of papers to locate a document, my eyes
fell on an old forgotten manuscript which, on scrutiny, turned out to be
a first time father's excited outpourings on the arrival of his offspring.This
treatise was penned by me in October 1960 in honour of my son.I have given the
characters figuring in this paper a touch of royalty.After all, to employ a cliche, if
wishes were horses, we can ride the clouds.Even though it is wishful thinking,I
have given a free run to my imagination.It is said that writers can take
some liberties. The events mentioned in the following narrative are, however,
to the best of my knowledge,true.

4.Prince
A.D.C-My Brother-in-law

5.Royal
Mausis-My wife's sisters

6.Royal
Mamajis-My wife's brothers.

7.His
Heaviness-Myself-(in view of my bulk)

8.Imperial
Prince-My Son

Wednesday,October
19,1960,was to have been like any other day.But the Government's decision to
celebrate Diwali on that day instead of on the succeeding day made it an
auspicious day.It must be an auspicious day,otherwise,priests and pundits would
not have not been able to prevail upon the authorities who matter, to change an
entry in the printed government calender.Amidst the noise and blasts of fire
crackers and other Diwali accompaniments in which children and those who are
still children in their mental make-up indulge,the more sober of the populous
woke up to be greeted by an angry sun.Diwali came but the sun was still
scorching as if it were to announce that Diwali was stillfar off.Her Majesty,the Rani of Patel Nagar
was staying with the Queen mother of Kotla Road to make preparations to welcome
the Imperial prince whose arrival was expected to take place a month hence.It was the day for Patel Nagar Rani to visit Lady Hardinge Hospital
for a detailed check-up.At 9 am ,His
Heaviness(Patel Nagar Rani's husband)was in the hospital to welcome the Rani
and the royal retinue.They arrived.Without loss of time allsolemnly entered the hospital.But as ill-luck would have it we were
informed that we would have to wait till 12 pm or so.But Providence was in our
favour.It is proverbial that women have longer tongues.They will talk in and
out of season.They will talk relevant and irrelevant things ,the latter always
predominating.(my wife vehemently protested but I have assured her that I have
great respect for all women)They have their own irrational fears and prejudices
when they are carrying babies.The main topic of the ladies who were on a
similar errand as that of the Rani of Patel Nagar,herein after called the
Heroine,was displacement.There was heated discussions among the ladies.I was
however totally confused.Some narrated some strange stories of the doctors'
behaviour etc.Pessimism reigned supreme.Timid of the lot occupied hind most
seats thus nourishing a false hope that they would be able to escape the
doctor's ominous hands. Our heroine,Her Majesty,the Rani of Patel took thisas an opportune moment. Our heroine though she
was also obsessed with the fears mentioned above,made a bold entry into the
sanctum sanctorum,the labour room.What a courage!What a dynamism!After ten
minutes ordeal she came out putting on a brave smile though her general
features betrayed suffering.The time was 10.45 am.The heroine accompanied by
His Heaviness returned to Patel Nagar.The place was full of Diwali sweets.At
about 2 o'clock the heroine started complaining pains. Stomach pain on Diwali
day is understandable. Even a person with moderate eating habits is likely to
get it on that day.So reasonably enough I dubbed it as due to the over
satisfaction of her palatal region.To be frank, it was dismissed as false
pain.It is a widely known fact that the heroine's faculty of pain is a
bit super sensitive and her too common complaints are generally received with a
complacent indulgence.She had some sort of pains a week before also and much
fuss was made about it but later on it proved to be a false alarm.Knowing the
background fully well these pains were also assigned to that category.At 6.30
pm,the heroine performed the Diwali puja and accompanied by His Heaviness left
for the Imperial Headquarters in a taxi.At 7 pm,His royal highness Prince A.D.Cinaugurated
the fireworks.Atom bombs,hydrogen bombs,dynamite and what not made excursions
to the heavens. The
heroine let out a scream.Bring this ,bring that,pack this,pack that,do this,do that,etc-all
instructing and no one to follow.There was a regular pandemonium.The heroine
was all tears.Heroine accompanied by Queen mother,Imperial father etc ,all got
into the car and sped away to the Lady Hardinge Hospital.The party reached the
hospital at 7.45 pm.After some routine enquires the party was allowed
inside.The heroine entered the labour room.Queen mother and Heaviness anxiously
waited outside to hear the outcome even though His Heaviness still maintained
that this was a recurrence of the event of the preceding week.But his protests
were ignored.Occasional screaming of the heroine showed that she was wide
awake.The clock struck 12.Another voice issued forth from the sanctum
sanctorum.Whose could it be?Subsequent enquiries revealed that Imperial Prince
has at last arrived.Well and good.There was excitement and more
excitement.Queen mother Naniji ran to the telephone booth to convey the happy
tidings to his Imperial Majesty,Nanaji and Royal Mausis and Mamajis who were
all wide awake awaiting the news..I was happy beyond words and with full of feelings that my
son and successor has arrived.

An
appeal-Bouquets -yes. Brickbats- No Please

Saturday, 23 February 2013

Today I am posting some jokes.I found them quite interesting hence I am sharing them with friends. So,here we go

The Best News

The
boss was finally old enough to retire from the company. On his last day
of work, he ordered a farewell party for himself. The boss wanted
everyone to express their good feeling about him by writing on the
farewell card, so later he could remember how his staff "missed" him.

Most
people were writing standard phrases like, 'Without you, the company
will never be the same,' 'We will always remember you,' etc.

Obviously
the boss was not satisfied, "I need something from the bottom of your
heart, something really touching, you know. Okay, John, you have been
working with me for the last 20 years. You are my best staff. I am
retiring now. What do you have
to say?" Slowly but firmly, John wrote, "The best news in 20 years." ha ha ha

A
Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they
were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's
work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, 'I'm drawing God.'The teacher paused and said, 'But no one knows what God looks like.' Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, 'They will in a minute.'

One
day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at
the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several
strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, 'Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?' Her mother replied, 'Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.' The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, 'Momma, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?'

The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them
each to buy a copy of the group picture. 'Just think how nice it
will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's
Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, He's a doctor.' A small voice at the back of the room rang out, 'And there's the teacher, she's dead.' A
teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to
make the matter clearer, she said, 'Now, class, if I stood on my head,
the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the
face.' 'Yes,' the class said.'Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?' A little fellow shouted, 'Cause your feet ain't
empty.'

The
children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school
for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun
made a note, and posted on the apple tray: 'Take only ONE . God is watching.' Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, 'Take all you want. God is watching the apples.

Friday, 22 February 2013

The Liebster award

Firstof all I sincerely thankmy friend and well wisher Smt.Panchali
Senguptafor nominating me forthe prestigious Liebster Award.Panchali,herself being a perfectionistin the artof writingblogs, has been awarded
the Liebster Awardsix times. I am sure
that she will achieve many more awards.Herstyle of writing andgivinga magical touch to words is sobewitching that any one who
reads the lines is enchanted. Being nominated by her isis an honour.My grateful thanks to her for the recognition she has given to my blogs.

What is the Liebster Award.

This is an award given
by bloggers to deserving bloggers to
give them anincentive to keep writing. It
is a sort of motivational Award.There are certain rules to be followed by
thenominees to be eligible for the
Award. The rules are listed below:-

Step 1.

The bloggers, who
have been nominated, must write 11 points pertaining to themselves.

Step 2

1.Answer the
questions which the nominator has set for you.

2.Nominatepersons whom you feel are deservingand inform them.

3.Create 11
questions for the bloggers you have nominated.

4.Go the blog
of each person and link them to your post

5.No tag back
is allowed.

Step 3.

Answers to the questions that I have been asked by
Madam Panchali :

1.Are you a morning person or night?

I am a morning person. I love listening to spiritual music early
in the morning.

2. Which is your
favourite genre of music?
I like to listen to old Hindi filmmusic.

3.Which is your favourite hobby?
I love to make chocolates and cakes for my grand children.
4.Do you own any pet? What kind?
Yes. We own a female Labrador dog, Elsa. We adore her. She is an
important member of our family.
5.How do you motivate yourself to exercise?
I want to remain mobile .
6. If you could move to any other city in the world, where would it be?
I have lived in Delhi all my life and will not like to
move from here but if there is any compulsion ,I would go to Kerala and
live in Tattamangalam(a village) which has lush greenery all around and
cool breeze.It is my hubby's
birthplace.
7.Something you learnt recently
I learnt to use the computer .
8. What is your favourite season of the year?
I like the Spring season when Nature is at its best. 9. What was your favourite childhood toy?

I loved playing with dolls.
10.Why did you start a blog?

After I retired from Govt. job I wrote a book titled Reverse
Gear. After the book was completed, I had nothing to do.I love to write so I
started writing blogs to give vent to my creative instinct.

11.Which electronic device you can’t live without?

My computer and
Mobile phone.

Step 4.

Now I am mentioning 11 things about my self.

1.I am a retired Additional Director of Education.

2. Iam deeply rooted in spiritualethos.

3. Ihave aliberal outlook.The very fact that I am a Punjabi
and married to a Keralite depicts my broad outlook.

4Writing has become a
passion with me.Last yearI wrote a book titled ‘Reverse Gear’ about my
experiences in personal and professional life.

5.Cooking is a craze for me. I love to experimentwith
new recipes.

6.I love my house, which we built with great enthusiasm.It is my nest where I live a life of
contentment with mydoting hubby, my loving son, an affectionate
daughter- in-law and two cute and adorable grand daughters and last but not the
least, our sooo sweet and faithful Elsa(our pet dog).

7 .Iam proud of my
daughter and son-in-law, both eminent Doctors. They are a big support to us.
Their two sons are darlings.

8.I am fond ofsoothing music, especially old Hindi movie songs.

9.I am crazyabout my
computer. I can sit on the computer day in and day out.

10.I like to chat with friends and relatives on the phone.

11.I am thankful to
God for all His bounties. He hasalways been kind to me. He has given me
everything.

10. Do you believe in God?

11. What is your favourite pastime?

Saturday, 16 February 2013

'Romancing tomorrow'. This is a guest post written by my husband.He has kindly agreed to write his article in my blog.

Romancing tomorrow

Tomorrow
is a concept, a beautiful concept, but not a reality. It is at best a
presumptive or prospective or plausible reality but not an absolute reality. It
is true that bards and bandits have woven ballads and bizarre poems around it.
That does not in any way bestow on it a currency as for example, today.
Tomorrow! I love you with all my heart and soul. Today is dull and drab. What
is today? It is a grind, it is horrifying and scurrying. Running from pillar to
post. Tomorrow, ha my beloved! How much I miss you. Your unjustly labelled
procrastination. Even if you are that, I will say, that you are the life and
soul of all that is and that will be. Everybody loves you; the whole world
adores you. My life companion is jealous of you, I hold you so tightly that she
feels that I am flirting with you and that that hug is rightly hers.
Saints and savants, poets and pugilists, philosophers and pedagogues, pagans
and purists, meek and the mighty, lowly and the lost and pugnacious and
obnoxious all sing paeans about you. They lie at your threshold to have a
glance of you or to be glanced at by you.
Regular shoppers will be aware of a slogan engineered by clever traders. They
promise things on credt for tomorrow which
never comes. Even such ordinary folk know the value and beauty of tomorrow. Chasing
tomorrow is an elusive pursuit. As the saying goes, tomorrow never comes.
You can say today is yesterday's tomorrow, but you cannot say that it is
tomorrow. Who has seen tomorrow? Not any living being, I reckon. Even though
some astrologers and soothsayers claim that they can see tomorrow, after all
what is prediction about, nobody can verify this claim because it is at best a
conjecture or a science of possibilities and presumptions.The invention of 'tomorrow' is a boon to many
of the weak-hearted, and of course to procrastinators. If it is entertainment,
I want it now at this very moment. If it is work, the first question that comes
to mind is whether I can postpone it for tomorrow. Our work piles up like this
because tomorrow never comes. Then we fret and fume and complain that we are
overworked. Having said so, you cannot still ignore the concept of tomorrow. As
distance lends charm, tomorrow sheds its charm all around.We make detailed
plans for 'tomorrow' as we cannot do that planning tomorrow, since tomorrow is
still in the stage of imagination if not hallucination.Rightly or wrongly, justifiably or
unjustifiably, in certain quarters tomorrow is equated with procrastination and
delaying tactics. The truth is that there is some truth in this belief. A large
segmentof the populace
either because of inertia or difficulty in grappling with a problem or
situation puts off things for the morrow.
Stigmatised with procrastination, ruin and rumination will be their repast with
hardly any scope for reparation or respite and often resulting in rumpus
situations. Even though subsequent alacrity may, to some extent, mitigate the
damage, most of what is obliterated will be irretrievable and irreconcilable.
Such a situation may devastate a man's equipoise and cause severe mental
disquietude. Procrastination is the commander of evil and feeble forces.
Procrastination is also known as the virtue of the wise. If this enemy within
is not routed in a straight battle of non-reticence and rectitude, recurrence and
recrudescence will be the result which in one mighty sweep can wash away all
that is achieved with valiant efforts.
Let us view tomorrow in its proper perspective and discharge all possible
functions of the fabled tomorrow today itself. This is the lesson that we have
inherited from the past and should be bequeathed to the succeeding generations.